1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of prescribing and delivering medical supplies through an Internet web site associated with the prescribing medical care provider.
2. Description of the Related Art
Physicians are continuously confronted with patients who need medical supplies as part of a treatment associated with their illness or condition. These may be walkers, slings, special splints, or the like. These devices can be fairly specialized, not particularly inexpensive and somewhat hard to find in your average drug store. In large communities or cities, a specialty store may exist allowing the in-store purchase of such supplies without too much inconvenience to the patient. However, in smaller communities, patients may find it extremely difficult to locate a specialized supply that a doctor has told them that they need. This may be especially true in situations where the patient has limited mobility or poor access to transportation.
In the present, the patient must scrounge the means to locate and travel to the specialty store, only to be told potentially that the item in question must be ordered from a manufacturer, adding delay to time before the patient receives the item in question.
The Internet and its proliferating web pages may facilitate some commerce in the medical industry. However, there remains a dearth of companies that provide medical supplies for sale over the Internet. Even where such companies do exist, patients may have a difficult time locating the appropriate web site. Further, even when the right web site is located, the medicalese language used on the web site may make it difficult for the patient to locate the object best suited for his needs. Still further, not every patient may have access to the Internet, or be computer savvy enough to navigate even the simplest of web sites.
In short, there remains a need for a user friendly web site that allows e-commerce to take place in the field of medical supplies, and particularly one that is managed by the prescribing physician to ensure that appropriate supplies are available for selection by patients, and that the site is tailored to the level of sophistication of the patients with which the particular managing physician deals.